4. Draw up a plan for your home landscape design (or get professional landscape design help)

Taking in all the clues from Rachel’s interior design, the architecture of her house and her preferred color palette a picture was quickly emerging in my mind:

I pictured a low waterlandscape breathing peace and beauty, brimming with color and plant life. The garden would be laid out around two main paved areas reminiscent of Spanish/Mexican courtyards.

Benches would offer seating to take a drink or finger food, to enjoy the many colors or to feel the comfortable atmosphere and peaceful mood of the garden.

One area would invite more for quiet sitting and contemplation of a fountain ;

The other area, closest to Rachel’s kitchen, would be the main food serving area. Here two benches would form a square for people to mingle, with room for side tables that Rachel could bring in if she had more trays than she wanted to place directly on the benches.

A walkway would be connecting these spaces, and their layout would be following the shape of the house (its walls were slightly curved outwards); the new pavement would be placed directly adjacent to the existing patio to allow people comfortable access to all areas of the garden.

Doing this suggested either a similar or a completely different pavement…

The benches would allow me to introduce more colors into the garden: They would be in complementary colors to each other, to the perimeter walls that I’d also paint, and to an additional, purely ornamental wall that I would use as “room divider”, “weight” and upright element in the garden.

This wall, in the shape of an undulating wave, would complement and contrast a water feature that would be the focal point of the quieter sitting area.

5. Remove what’s not needed; and put all ingredients together:

Rachel was very excited about the first draft of this backyard landscape design and approved all of it.

She was most thrilled about the idea of applying paint to all of the walls, the perimeter wall included.

And she loved the fountain idea which consisted of two stone slabs, mounted one on top of the other at differing angles, with a central core from which water would run over both stones.

For the new pavement we opted for grey concrete with an acid wash finish (which brings out the sand aggregate in the mix). This seemed the most elegant and cost-effective material that would harmonize with the existing grey concrete. (In the photo outlines of the future design elements are drawn onto the ground to help fine-tune their shape and dimensions, and to help the homeowner visualize the future look of the garden. It also shows how all plants have been removed except for the fruit trees and the Pine Tree in the opposite corner.)

And so the final design came together very quickly. After a soil test we chose a mix of some “Southwestern” plants with some other ones that like it here in Leucadia, too: Rock Purslane Calandrinia spectabilis, Aloe ‘Red Hot Chili Pepper’, Red Yucca Hesperaloe parviflora, Aeonium ‘Cabernet’ and Crassula ‘Campfire, to name a few’; more drought resistant plants such as Sundrops Calylophus drummondii and Penstemon Margarita BoP; the “bones” and structure of this low water landscape would be provided by the shrubs ‘Goldstar’ Yellow Bells Tecoma stans stans ‘Goldstar’ and Dwarf Variegated Myrtle Myrtus communis variegata compacta, to which Rachel added a favorite of hers, a Yellow Mexican Bird of Paradise Caesalpinia gilliesii. We placed another shade tree to shade the reading nook (Crape Myrtle “Centennial Spirit” Lagerstroemia x hybrids), over at the other end of the garden; its orange-red color will be a nice color teaser when in bloom. Ornamental grasses add a light and airy, even dreamy character to the plantings. Here we used Hairy Awn Mulhly Muhlenbergia capillaris, Golden Variegated Sweet Flag Acorus gramineus ‘Ogon’, and Blue Oat Grass Helictotrichon sempervirens.

Purple Bougainvilleas drape a post-and-wire-trellis in two critical places to raise the privacy screen around the perimeter but leave a window to view the ocean.

To the colors of the plants those of the walls would be a permanent contrast, stimulus and harmonious “compliment” . We chose Orange for the perimeter wall; “Violet Majesty” purple for the seatwalls; and Chartreuse/lime for the curved wall across from the fountain.

6. Enjoy!

Sitting in the sun with Rachel recently on one of the colorful benches, and enjoying a sweet breakfast Danish (a “prop” left-over from staging her garden for the photo shoot), she remarked on how much she loves her garden now, and how she marvels at discovering, every morning when she comes outside to visit it, another plant in bloom or just colorful on its own.

At that moment a bee was visiting a rock purslane flower right behind her shoulder, and as I was pointing the bee out to her she hardly moved away and said she loved how so many of them are now visiting her garden. This is what she had dreamt of, and she’s learning to take care of the plants and delight in them any moment she can.

One of my very first backyard landscape design projects was a small urban backyard renovation where the homeowners were tired of lawn and old shrubs. Ryan and Jill were dreaming of a much more peaceful, enchanting scene and asked me to design a pond that they could view from their deck.

The sound of water running in a small creek from a small rocky “outcropping” and mound in a far corner of the garden into the pond, and a dense leafy screen surrounding the garden would make the backyard very private and block out most of the city noises.

The design was installed some 8 years ago, and I recently went back to visit and to see how pond, fish and homeowners were doing.

I did arrive with some trepidations: My original choice of screening trees had not been the happiest: The Brazilian Tipuana tipu is a beautiful tree with lacey foliage and a wide, umbrella-like crown. It fits well into a low water landscape, is ‘green’ through our Southern California winter but starts shedding its foliage when most other deciduous trees have leafed out already. This takes several weeks until, in early summer, it bursts into the prettiest bloom of orange-yellow Sweet Pea-like flowers. Besides the leave drop problem I had expected that the trees in this xeriscape design would crowd each other out eventually, and I was expecting that the homeowner might regret that selection.

I was thrilled to see a scene not much changed since the garden had been installed: The creek was still running to the pond, providing needed oxygen and delighting us with its gurgling and bubbling sounds. Some twelve smallish Koi were busily milling close to the deck as the evening was approaching, to receive their daily feeding. The peaceful mood was still there as were the trees, although the homeowner said he would remove them soon because he intended to install solar panels on his roof. To my relief he said that he had loved their look and therefore didn’t mind the extra maintenance. I asked him about his maintenance program, and he explained that he adds a biological clarifier on a weekly basis, and an algaecide as needed (both are biological controls). He also uses a skimmer and filter cloth, hidden under a fake rock, that get cleaned weekly (except during heavy drop like the Tipus drop their leaves); then there’s a biofall (where the waterfall starts) in another plastic box that has the same filter mesh at the bottom and 2 mesh bags of rock. The leaves and petals are not too bad, he says – even when the wind has blown an extra load of petals into the water.

What about “visitors”? He has created some hollow spaces at the bottom of the pond under several overturned clay tiles where the fish hide when an occasional heron or egret comes to visit. Raccoons merely push a few of the smaller rocks around in their attempt to catch a Koi, but always give up – they don’t like the deep in the middle of the pond where the fish hide.

Over the years Ryan and Jill have enjoyed their water feature that always entertains them with a lively yet peaceful scenery: There are rocks and boulders, rushes and grasses at the water’s edge, and there’s the cherished Pineapple Guava that has grown into a graceful large shrub, on the other side of the pond.

There’s the play of sunlight on the water’s surface and the steady darting of dragon flies or other beneficial insects that land on blades and pads of Iris and Water Lilies. Birds of course come to the water’s edge to bathe and drink as well as other critters. Visitors come to stay, such as frogs, others wonder out again, such as the occasional raccoon.. There’s the comfortable chair across from the deck inviting to sit and watch the activities at the pond from a different angle, especially the perennial glint and splash of the Koi fish. There are lots of babies at this time – they are the babies that hatched in early summer of last year.

I’m not an expert in pond building or maintenance, so here’s a quick overview (and I don’t claim completeness):

The prominent ingredients of a fish pond are water, plants, fish, snails, soil, light, temperature – and time. After all the ingredients have been put together, it takes time for all to balance out and grow into a clear pond.

Algae, while they are unsightly, may not necessarily be unhealthy; they can make the water appear brownish or green, or grow as fine threads or moss-like coverings on shells, snails, walls and stones. Small fish can feed on some of these algae… Threadlike algae are often associated with crystal clear water and are evidence of the oxygen-generating ability of algae. A lot of things feed plants, algae and fish: Food that we give the fish; foliage that drops into the water and decays; and the waste that fish produce.

Adding aquatic plants to a pond not only increases its visual appeal and natural look; floaters such as Water Hyacinth , marginals such as Water Iris , and Water Lilies help reduce algae as they feed on nutrients or block out sunlight – both will starve the algae. Shading the water with leaves keeps the water cooler which is desirable. Chemical control may also be used if necessary, however great care must be taken to select chemicals safe for fish and plant life. As the pond matures, the need for chemicals should diminish. Keeping decomposing material in the water to a minimum will also lower the nutrients in the water, less food will then be available for the algae to feed upon. Prune off old leaves and skim the surface for fallen leaves.

The pH of the water can also affect pond balance, and there are formulas suggested to help achieve it. Also, you can determine the most balanced amount of fish and plants for your pond by calculating the water’s volume and surface area.

I’m not an expert in pond matters; I’d rather refer to an ‘ocean’ of information and helpful videos online… You can contact the local chapter of the California Landscape Contractors Association to refer you to a San Diego landscaper experienced in pond building.

And mosquitoes?

Did you know that fish eat mosquito larvae and that mosquitoes don’t like moving water? Keeping your water moving and cleaning off debris regularly that provides hiding places for mosquitoes is a good recipe to control mosquitoes.

What not to love about a pond! I myself have one, as part of my front yard landscape design, by my front door. I watch it from my living room window, and although its location isn’t perfect either (the previous owners must have decided to live with the maintenance; they created the pond at the edge of an oak canopy), it’s a most cherished delight of my garden.

"Christiane, your design is beautiful. Viewers love the design and color. Thank you so much for all your support while the project was being developed. It would have been more stressful for me had you not held my hand regularly.”